The Rays open the spring season today with a game against the Orioles…

The Professor: Baby Prof? I need to see you right away. It’s important.Baby Prof: [Crawling over to the couch] Wass goin on?The Professor: [sighs] We got 35 big weeks ahead of us. It’s baseball season, kid!Baby Prof: You sanbaggin’ son of a poop diaper!The Professor: I’ve got us down for 18 of them already.Baby Prof: More on TV?The Professor: Great question. I like where your head’s at and almost all of them actually are, but I got us covered: The extra innings package, MLB.tv and MLB At Bat on the iPhone.Baby Prof: Hehe! *burps*The Professor: We are gonna have tons and tons of opportunities to watch amazing baseball players that might actually figure out how to move a runner over in the late innings this year.Baby Prof: Derwick Shetton iz teach them?The Professor: Grab that bat and watch that beautiful game, pal! What do you like better, Winnie the Pooh or Baseball Season?
[Baby Prof raises both hands and a leg]The Professor: Miss Prof?Baby Prof: Bassbawl! *poops her diaper*

DEVIL DOGS WEBTOPIA…

Jake McGee is slated to throw one inning today and Jeremy Hellickson will throw tomorrow.

Justin Upton signed a 6-year, $51million contract that will delay his free agency by two seasons…This leaves us wondering if this deal might push BJ Upton to sign a long-term deal. We have to believe that BJ always believed he would cash in first. [USA Today]

Dan Johnson is working out at third base for the Rays…This is important if Willy Aybar’s wrist continues to be a problem. Johnson could potentially take Aybar’s spot on the bench to start the season. The alternative would be to keep both Reid Brignac and Sean Rodriguez who are currently battling for the backup middle infielder role. [St. Pete Times]

Marc Topkin has a list of 10 things to watch for this spring. [St. Pete Times]

Tony Fabrizio says there are few questions to answer in the spring. [Tampa Tribune]

It is behind the Insider wall, but a new blog at ESPN.com has a story on Matt Garza as “One2Watch4 in 2010,” noting his odd splits in which he dominated lefties but struggled against righties. [ESPN]

13 Comments

Radio? I had the same thought when I saw the news about justin..would bj be willing to take less than little bro? I don't think the rays would pay him that much as it stands now. I expect bossman to do his darndest to earn a fat contract with his play this year...would the rays be open to contract talks midseason?

Gameday audio has the Orioles feed, which is nice. Well, nice except that I'm being forced to listen to the Orioles guys. So far, it's reminiscent of this: http://www.hulu.com/watch/131073/saturday-night-live-espn-classic-womens-curling#s-p1-sr-i1

OMG why can't they get rid of this guy? I had to listen to the Orioles broadcast cause I couldn't take Rich Herrera any longer. I think I learned more about the Rays from the Baltimore guys (was that Jon Miller or was I hearing things?) than from Rich. I hope we aren't stuck w/ him for the all the spring games, its bad enough having him do pre and post game reg season.

This stat from the Mark Simon/ESPN article was an interesting way to show how dominant Garza can be:

"In the 11 games Garza won, his ERA was 0.64. I challenge you to find a pitcher who could match that. At the time, we asked Elias, and looked on Baseball-Reference.com, and the pitcher whose name kept coming up was Nolan Ryan. In 1980 Ryan won 11 games and had an ERA of 0.89 in those victories. The following year, he won 11 games, and had an ERA of 0.53 in his wins."

also interesting from ESPN (hate to say it)... the sportsnation poll question... which upton would you rather have? BJ got 57% to Justin's 43%, with what looks like 47 states to 3. interesting considering the recent history of the bros and the fat contract for justin.